Today, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) formally announced that she is seeking the Republican presidential nomination at an event in Iowa. In a field of lackluster candidates, Bachmann is an unabashedly polarizing figure whose statements, agenda, and policy positions are not only often factually inaccurate but are also frequently imbued with extreme, hateful, homophobic and even violent rhetoric. The fact that she is considered a viable representation of the Republican party sends a stark message about the toxicity of the GOP in 2012. Often the Affordable Care Act's most apoplectic opponent, Bachmann has suggested that health care reform will result in "death panels" as well as "school-based sex clinics," and that it could allow a 13-year-old girl can be taken to an abortion clinic during a school day to "have their abortion, be back and go home on the school bus that night...mom and dad are never the wiser." She has rallied those against the Affordable Care Act to stand together, saying, "What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing." She has used such extreme rhetoric to oppose other policies as well, calling the federal tax code a "weapon of mass destruction" and referring to Wall Street reform as "thuggish." Additionally, Bachmann has proposed eliminating the minimum wage and cutting billions from veterans' benefits. She also voted against a bill providing for 9/11 first responders' health care and then bragged about it, calling it "new spending." Michele Bachmann's increasing legitimacy as a presidential contender speaks volumes about the atmosphere within the Republican party today.

As disgraced former Speaker Newt Gingrich tweets his way into the GOP presidential race for 2012, we are reminded of his outstanding record of political and moral malfeasance in his decades-long effort to promote himself. From his personal and professional ethical transgressions to his crusade against the working class, Gingrich continues to thrive in the shadows of fiscal corruption and the spotlight of right-wing hyperbole. Despite his rocky marital past and remarkably hypocritical and extremist rhetoric, Gingrich unabashedly vaunts himself as the country's moral compass without a hint of irony, consistently waging an ideological war in an effort to maintain his own relevance.

The RNC's newfangled campaign website has a cutting-edge campaign strategy: attack President Obama for signing a policy that GOP members of the House and Senate endorsed. In a litany of attacks on President Obama's stance on social issues, the RNC cites the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. However, the RNC elides the fact that the battle for repeal hinged on Republican support for passage. At the end of the day, 15 Republicans in the House and eight in the Senate voted to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a move that was backed by an overwhelming majority of the American people.

In a recent interview with CBN's The Brody File, Sarah Palin stated she is not boycotting CPAC, and she doesn't think anyone should boycott the conference just because they "don't personally agree" with GOProud.

During a debate hosted by George Washington University on Tuesday, Newt Gingrich suggested this his personal beliefs should dictate the law, saying that while everyone has the right to their own beliefs about marriage, he's "prepared to defend" his point of view.